Without naming the companies that failed to appoint at least one woman director within the stipulated deadline of March 31, Sebi announced a four-stage penalty structure wherein fines would increase with the passage of time.

In the list of top 10 corporates in terms of assets, RIL and HDFC are the only two firms from the private sector.

With only two months left in this financial year, the govt has managed to raise only a small fraction of the ambitious target of Rs 58,425 crore.

\"Five per cent of the shares of PFC could be sold next week,\" a senior finance ministry official said on Friday, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

They see an opportunity to expand in a sector dominated by state-owned banks and where foreign lenders control only 6 per cent of total banking assets.

Financial services provider Kotak has said that piece-meal divestments would achieve little in terms of improving efficiency and returns for the government.

PM Narendra Modi's selloff agenda has met resistance from labour unions and faces delays due to bureaucratic upheaval caused by a purge of the top team at the finance ministry that handles asset sales.

\"In the first year, when people expect lot of reforms and there is lot of popular support behind the reform process, it is more easily possible,\" FM Arun Jaitley said.

The new formula, approved by the Cabinet, will be effective Nov 1 and rates will be revised every six months with the next revision being on April 1.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said the Cabinet in its Saturday meeting decided to deregulate domestic diesel prices, so that the retail rates of the fuel will now reflect international movement in oil prices.

The combined sales, worth about $470 million at current market values, are part of government plans for a record $10.5 billion in asset sales in the year to March to help plug a budget deficit.

The improvement in outlook of the companies follows S&P's revision in the sovereign credit outlook for India, the ratings agency said in a statement.

Under the new arrangement, manufacturing, finance and legal functions at Oracle will continue to report to Catz, while sales and service units will continue to report to Hurd.

The government has set a target of $10.5 billion from asset sales during the current fiscal year to March 2015 to help plug its deficit.

In their place, Arvind, JustDial and L&T Finance Holdings will be included in the index, according to the changes announced by India Index Services & Products (IISL), a subsidiary of NSE Strategic Investment Corporation.

The apex court is due to decide on September 1 whether to cancel the allocations, or to impose some sort of penalty. Analysts said a mass cancellation of the blocks would be a worst-case scenario and add to a shortage of coal for power plants.

Featuring PM Narendra Modi's speech, Manjul Bhargava on winning fields medal and more.

Although CEO Larry Page has been taking risks since he co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1998, the stakes probably wouldn't be as high if not for the company's pivotal public offering on August 19, 2004.

The Ministry feels that some elements of the Rangarajan formula, which was notified by the previous UPA government in January but put on hold till September-end, have no relevance to pricing in India and should be removed, sources privy to the development said.